RIP Lilo (the fish)

i mentioned that a couple of weeks ago we added two more critters to our brood. sadly, we've already lost one... our sucker fish - lindsay lohan went off to the toilet bowl in the sky this afternoon. but our fat goldfish frank is going strong. he's a fabulous little fish with one black eye and one white eye. nuggie likes to say good morning and good night each day to him. sweet little frank :-)

class. is. done. well - for three weeks anyhow. i passed microbiology and with a B - woot!!! college the first time around yielded a less then stellar GPA. it's great to be doing it now with a different attitude. i could kick my self for being such a slacker in the past. oh, it was SO hard to find time to study and to go to class when you've got a boyfriend and a hate for the hours of 4-10 am. oh what i wouldn't give to have that schedule again :-) hindsight really is 20/20!

so the next weeks have a few fun things in store. first, we leave for a little mini vacation to florida. this will be my first real trip there. we honeymooned in the keys, but other than that i've yet to explore anywhere in the pan handle state. we have zero plans other than to sleep and eat and go to the beach. it will be our first family vacation. guess we'll need to take nuggie to the zoo or a museum or something family vacation-y :-) then i've got the 5k - not sure i'm going to be able to run the WHOLE thing, but i will run most of it, that is for sure. guess i shouldn't have picked the hottest part of summer to start my training. it's been so hard to get moving when it's 80something at 6am. i'm up to running almost two miles though - woot! and we do still have two weeks. so we'll see :-)

nuggie had her 9 month photos taken by the amazing and talented miss allison wicker today. if you live in the middle tn/southern ky area and are looking for an AUHMAZING photographer - please look her up!!! i'll pass along her info if you like :-) i'll be sure to post some pics when we get them. i think we got some really fun ones today!

just one of those weeks...

i opened up the drawer in our kitchen tonight and look at what happened!?! yep - it's just been one of those weeks. and... it's only tuesday. well, it won't do anyone any good to dwell on it i guess - though i'd love to rant about the fact that it's really stinking hard being a mommy some days, especially with an obnoxious dog, puking cat, teething baby, husband out of town and finals to study for... but no one wants to hear that either... one thing i do need to get off my chest - ooorrrr maybe get off my flabby ass - this baby weight! i heard tonight that if you've not lost the weight by the time babes is 9 months old, you're not likely to lose it. please someone tell me this isn't true. if i could go back in time and un-eat all those waffle fries and cartons of cake batter ice cream that i stuffed in my face when nuggie was just a bun in the oven - trust me, i would. i'm getting so frustrated! i'm running now - you know, not miles and miles, but 3 times a week and then trying to do yoga one day and weights one day. it's not the most amazing workout plan on earth - but it's something. and i'm trying so hard to eat well. again, i don't always do super awesome - but i've really cut back on sweets and fatty foods. and NOTHING. not one single pound lost. i'm still sitting at about 17 pounds over my pre-preggo weight. i'm so sick of not fitting in to anything. i've got a closet full of size 6 pants and medium tops and i'm still living in a chunky monkey world. maybe i should just give up and get some bigger clothes? but i don't want to do that! i'm at my wits end. ideas anyone? i need QUICK, healthy, snack and meals ideas. i think maybe this is where i'm going wrong? i am eating better, but not great i guess. and maybe little tricks for sneaking in exercise or something? i'm feeling very sorry for myself tonight. it's taking everything in me to not run towards the sugar cereal and stuff it all in my mouth right now. HELP!

tomato!!!!

looky, looky, LOOKY!

i picked our first tomato this morning! we will eat it tonight and i can't wait! we didn't do a garden this year - with the new babycakes and school we just couldn't commit to caring for a full on veggie patch - BUT, we did put a couple of tomato plants out on the back deck. YUM!

the pics of frank and li lo are coming, i promise. the tank is up on a dresser in nugg's room, so every time she's napping and i can blog i can't take pics b/c, well, there's a sleeping baby by the fishy wishies.don't worry - it's VERY secure and at this point there is no possible way she can get to it. we'll move it when she's older and in a big girl bed and is free in her room to move about.

bub's home so i'm gonna keep this short. have a sweet weekend lovelies! stay cool, it's blazing hot out there.

a few little thoughts

- frozen cherries are little gifts from a diet angel somewhere. you feel like you're munching on a sweet little frozen treat, but really you're just eating fruit. waistline win!

- as if our house isn't crazy enough, we've had two new arrivals the last week. our fishies - frank and lindsay lohan. pics and an explanation of their names to follow soon, i promise.

- nuggie is growing and changing so much! she's become a joy to take places so i have a new little buddy to see the world with. tomorrow we're going to the TMG for lunch so she can hopefully, FINALLY meet an old friend. maybe she can have her first bite of hamburger :-)

that's all i've got for tonight.
xoxo

Cake? There's Cake?

it's been a little minute since i attempted another recipe in my super cupcake cookbook. today i took on one more... with a few little changes.

first of all - even though the book is a cupcake cook book, this recipe was for a cake. it's called raspberry lemon mouse cake. it started with a lemon cake mix and called for a few additions of buttermilk and lemon zest. side note - i now have a carton of buttermilk, any ideas of what i might do with it?? it also called for raspberry pie filling and all i could find were small cans and they were expensive, so i went with a strawberry pie filling instead. the frosting, oh the gosh darn frosting - this is where this cookbook ALWAYS leads me astray. it NEVER turns out how they say it will. i added some white sugar to mine because it just wasn't getting thick and i still only ended up with a tiny bit and it was sort of bland, so i only put it on the top rather than the whole cake and to make it a little sweeter i put some extra strawberry filling in the middle of the cake. here is how it turned out...

it's super yummy! i'm feeling a little sad for myself today, so i've had two slices already :-P whatever, the diet starts again on monday...

bub and i went to see harry potter last night. oh my goodness - it was so much better than i thought it would be! the whole movie from beginning to end had me on the edge of my seat. it's so sad that this is the end of it all, but what a great way to go out!

tonight the hubs is off on a work trip and the babes is asleep. i've finished listening to my lecture notes, so you know what that means! i'm snuggled up on the couch watching terrible, awful, no good for me tv - teen mom! i've got to say this and i'm sorry to offend anyone - but what is the deal with these kids and their beds. it's always the same - no sheets! WTF??? how do you just sleep on a mattress? you can pick up a decent, cheap set at walmart or target for like nothing. put some sheets on your bed. seriously. it just looks so skanky to be on a bed with nothing on it. 

39 + 39 + 9 = Baby Love!

tomorrow is a big day for us. so i gotta blog about about it today b/c i have a feeling things might be a little hectic tomorrow.

what is tomorrow you ask? it's friday july 15th! duh! but what else is it?

it's nuggie's 9 month birthday! my sweet little lady will be 3/4 of a year old. oh sweet angel! she will also happen to be exactly 39 weeks old. good golly, time is flying! but what's also neat about this is that she was born on a friday when i was 39 weeks along. so tomorrow, on a friday, my little love will be 39 weeks and it was 39 weeks ago that i was 39 weeks pregnant. say what?!? i have to say these last 39 weeks have gone much faster then the 39 that she was in my belly.

since tomorrow sweet babes will be 9 months old she gets the joy of celebrating it at her 9 month check up with her pediatrician :-( so tomorrow will be full of lots of cuddles and kisses. she's already teething and teething AND teething - with no actual tooth in sight just yet, now she's got to get shots and poked and prodded. poor sweet baby.

this also explains the lack of posts lately. nugg's been one grumpy little monkey and isn't sleeping a whole lot - so i've been trying to give her extra loves and hugs and chilled bits of watermelon - her fav! she also gets a tickle out of riding around in shopping carts, so we've had big exciting trips to walgreen's and target just to walk up and down the aisles. i know, you're jealous :-P

some quick updates -

- the C25K is going well. i ran for twenty minutes last night. guys, this is huge! before i started this whole training thing i had never run more than 2 or 3 minutes EVER. now i'm jogging around, slowly but surely, for 20 minutes. ole!

- the final harry potter opens tonight. we won't be there, but i'm jealous of friends who are able to stay up so late. we're hoping to maybe hit up a matinee on saturday sometime?

- nuggie's still needing votes in the gerber baby contest - go to FB, like gerber and enter her number - 22374!

- and it. is. hot. i know we live in the south and all, but seriously? a heat index of 103 at 10pm? no bueno mother nature - tisk, tisk.

this and that

well, i don't think that link i put up for nuggie's gerber thingy is working right. if you'd like to help us out though - like gerber on FB and her ID number is 22374!

so it's been a CRAZY week (i feel like i say that alot these days). sweet baby's teeth are bothering her, i think. the silly things have yet to actually pop through, but she's so fussy and grumpy and won't let us look in her mouth and she's drooling, so i'm guessing teeth?

we had a fun fourth!

nuggie's patriotic outfit #1

nugg's red, white & blue - outfit #2!

 

 

we had two fun little get togethers to attend this year. nuggie enjoyed splashing in sprinklers, nibbling on watermelon and seeing all the kids run around!

so now it's friday! woot! whole foods had cherries on sale today, so i got a couple bags and i'm gonna freeze them up! i did this with blueberries they had on sale last month and it's been such a treat to pull out a baggie and enjoy them.

happy july everyone!

vote, vote, vote - like a little baby stoat

alright lovelies - i need your help. for the next 27 days i will be annoying you all and asking for you to vote for sweet nuggie in the gerber baby photo contest. i think she's pretty darn cute and we could use some money for her college savings since it will probably cost fifty gajillion dollars to send her off to school in 18 years.

VOTE right here!

if this link isn't working, her ID number is 22374. on facebook search "Gerber" and you should be able to vote there too.

here's the pic you're looking for too.

sweet babes and i thank you... do it to it folks. you can all take a minute and click that mouse! i know you can!

baby clothes happy dance!

soooo - last summer, when i was just an overheated, ginormous pregnant gal - i spent many a summer afternoon combing over the sale racks at gymboree looking for clothes for our soon to be baby girl. fast forward to this summer and we now have a wiggly 9 month old who was in need of summer apparel. it's 4th of july weekend (duh!) and i KNEW i had purchased a sweet little patriotic ensemble for baby girl last summer while we were at a cracker barrel (don't judge) in indiana for the family get together. but the sweet little red, white and blue frock was no where to be found. this morning i begged bub to climb into our spidery, hot as hades attic and search for the sweet little outfit... hello, we have an independence day party to attend this afternoon! and he said he would only do it if i came up too. ick. yuck. swear and curse words!! i've NEVER been up there. it's where the poisen deadly spiders reside. but, while i may be chub and not at all fashionable - my sweet babycakes will not follow in her momma's footsteps. my baby girl MUST look fabulous! (don't worry, i'm not going all toddlers and tiara's on anyone). so i hiked up my big, fatty girl panties and up i went. and there it was! a forgotten tupp! and low and behold, there it was - her sweet little cracker barrel outfit! AND.A.WHOLE.LOT.MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! how could i have forgotten that ALL these clothes were up there? not only were all my last summer bargains stashed in this one particular container, but so were all of sweet buggie's 6-12 mo hand me down's from miss c! oh. my.word! i am in baby girl clothes heaven! look at this haul!

smile, though your heart is breaking...

do you ever have one of those weeks?? nothing seems to go right and everything you do just backfires like an atomic bomb right in your face. i know, we've all been there. it was NOT a fun week. but then i see these sweet faces and everything seems better. my angel baby and my bub - i don't need anything else in this world but them. sweet baby girl is getting so mobile, she's a real rollie pollie. she's trying so hard to pull up on things and her favorite new skill is to wobble around "walking" while you hold her hands. and my sweet bub, well he was gone all last week and i was so glad to have him home again. i love these two more than anything in the world, i would do anything for them.

this week wasn't a total bust. we managed to squeeze a little fun in. last night we double dated with another fun couple and had dinner at sole mio and then off we went to a taping of Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me. it was a true night out for us and it was such a treat! the show was amazing - i'm so glad we went! now if i could just meet Click and Clack i could go off to NPR heaven :-)

the C25K is going ok. like i said, this week was sucky for many reasons... my running was for sure affected by my lack of time and lack of ambition to hit the pavement. i'm still working on week 4. but i did run a 1/3 of a mile. this is huge for me - i'll take it.

school is going ok. we got our "midterm" reports on tuesday and i'm happy to say i'm passing. barely, but i am passing! we've only got this month to go and then i'm done. well, till august 23, then i for real start the nursing program.

i'm gonna enjoy the rest of this evening with my sweet hubby. sorry for the lack of anything interesting. here's to a restful holiday weekend and the start of a nice fresh week.